Gateau au Chocolat

Chantel has ruined my reputation!  You have to understand, I am not a baker, I do not bake!  A rare occasion maybe; but there is just so much….measuring, and you have to be so…..exact, and you have to…..follow directions.  If you know me, you would think that a would be such a natural at baking and that I would embrace it’s structure, because, well, it’s so me.  The truth is, when I cook, I love the creativity, the freedom, the approximate, the little of this, the little of that.  I always got out of baking by claiming I don’t do it very well.  And then, I decided it would be wrong not to attempt at least one of the desserts in the French cookbook by Carole Clements & Elizabeth Wolf-Cohen.  Guess what, it came out perfect and delicious.  Maybe I can just attribute it to a really good cookbook and still claim I lack true baking skills?

Ingredients

 3/4 cup sugar

10 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped (or already purchased in chunks)

3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces

2 tsp vanilla extract

5 eggs, separated

1/4 flour, sifted

pinch of salt

powdered sugar for dusting

Yes, I have a label maker, and yes I use it, love it!  I recommend it to everyone.

Directions

Preheat oven to 325

This is not in the cookbook, but it is a trick that I know, surprising for a non-baker. 

Tear off a piece of parchement paper so that it is larger then the pan.  Remove the bottom portion of the spring form pan.  Next halve the paper, then halve it again, then one more time.  Put the point at the center of the pan and mark the outer edges of the parchment paper to line up with the bottom of the pan, then trim.

Unfold, reassemble the pan, then butter the parchment paper.

Next, lightly coat the entire pan with flour, shake off all the extra.

This little trick will make it sooo much easier to remove from the pan.  It will also keep the cake from sticking to the serving dish, cool beans!

Finally onto the cake part.

Set aside 3 tbs of the sugar for alter.  Measure your chocolate (I had a 12 ounce bag and only needed 10 oz…see what I told you about baking!), if you bought a bar, chop it up, and cut up your butter.

Place the chocolate, butter and remaining sugar in a heavy bottomed saucepan and cook over low heat until the chocolate and butter have melted and the sugar has dissolved.  Remove the pan from heat and stir in the vanilla.  let the mixture cool slightly.

Meanwhile, separate your eggs.  Beat the egg yolks, then add to the chocolate mixture, beating each in well, then stir in the flour.

In a clean greasefree bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites slowly unti they are frothy.  Increase the speed, add the salt and continue beating until soft peaks for.  Sprinkle over the reserved 3 tbs of sugar and beat until the whites are stiff and glossy.

Beat 1/3 of the whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold in the remaining whites.  Carefully pour the mixture into the pan and gently rap the pan to release any air bubbles.

Bake in the oven for 35 – 45 minutes until well risen and the top springs back when touched lightly with a fingertip.

Transfer the cake to a wire rack (or in my case a trivet cause I have no cool where my wire racks are).  Remove the sides and let cool completely.

Dust with powdered sugar and watch it disappear!

It’s a cake, it’s a brownie, no it’s a ca-brownie.  It’s French Chocolate Cake and its delish.